Theresa May urged to pass law to drive up number of women MPs

Political parties should be forced to make sure 45% of the parliamentary candidates it fields are women - or face fines, MPs have said.

Ministers should set a statutory minimum proportion for women candidates to redress a "serious democratic deficit", the Commons Women and Equalities Committee has said.

Theresa May has been urged to bring forward legislation to improve female representation in politics, setting the target of 45% of women in Parliament and local government by 2030.

The Committee said: "Women make up more than half the population of the United Kingdom and, at atime when more women are in work than ever before, there is no good reason why women should not make up half of the House of Commons.

"If the Commons is serious about being truly representative of the people that it seeks to represent, it must rise to the challenge of being a world leader on women's parliamentary representation."

Image:Tony Blair in 1997 with some of the 101 Labour women MPs elected

Only 30% of MPs are women, which puts it 48th globally for female representation - compared to 25th in 1999.

Under Tony Blair, the number of female MPs shot up. At the 1997 election the number doubled to 120 - 101 of whom were Labour MPs.

The committee said party leaders had made commitments to increase the number of women MPs but there were no "concrete action plans".

Conservative committee chairwoman and former culture secretary Maria Miller said: "We need concrete action plans. We need party leadership to provide clear and strong direction in working with local parties to deliver more women candidates.

"We need to see more women candidates in winnable seats."

The committee also called for the provisions of the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 to be extended so parties can continue to operate all-women shortlists after 2030 - as well as extending them to cover elected mayors and police and crime commissioners.